Working environment
Work-related accidents & sick leave
Sick leave throughout the Group remains at a low level, 2.4 (2.5)%, but the number of accidents in the workplace that resulted in sick leave increased slightly to 16 (14). This increase in accidents is unacceptable, so efforts to improve the situation will be intensified in 2011.

The new scheme for continuous improvement, Perstorp Performance System, focuses sharply on safety. The behaviour-based safety program, Take Care, is a key component.

Physical fitness
To promote good health and job satisfaction, strengthen team spirit and reduce sick leave, all Perstorp employees shall have access to opportunities for improving physical fitness. The production site in Perstorp, for example, has a gym, a group fitness session and a sports centre for ball sports and exercise bikes.

Company healthcare services 
External suppliers provide company healthcare services to Perstorp, meaning that the service provided varies at the different production sites. In addition to vaccinations and health checks based on age and working environment, great importance is attached to preventive measures that involve ergonomics and stress management. To help people get back to work after illness, swift rehabilitation measures are offered, adapted to individual requirements.

Product safety 
Work on product safety in 2010 focused on the extensive preparations required for registration of Perstorp’s products in accordance with the EU’s REACH program – Registration, Evaluation, Authorization of Chemicals. The information required for registration is submitted in a dossier that contains information about use of the substance, its physical, chemical and toxilogical properties, and a chemicals safety report with instructions to enable safe handling. The chemicals safety report presents the exposure levels that are safe for humans and the environment for the stated applications. Separate instructions for safe handling present the technical and organizational safety measures required during production and use so that handling is safe for humans and the environment.

In 2010 Perstorp communicated intensively with customers and suppliers to ensure that Perstorp’s products, and the raw materials used by Perstorp, are handled safely.

Perstorp is also active in a number of consortiums and so-called SIEFs (Substance Information Exchange Forum) in which companies that must register the same substance work together to produce documentation to ensure correct registration. Perstorp has chosen to play the leading role and take complete responsibility for producing registration information for 18 substances. Perstorp registered a total of 59 substances in 2010 for which production volumes exceed 1,000 tons per year.

Alongside compliance with REACH in 2010, a new EU regulation (EC 1271/2008) concerning classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures came into force in 2010. The new regulations are based on the UN’s Global Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). Perstorp has classified its substances and reported them to the European Chemicals Agency, ECHA, in 2010 in accordance with the new regulations. Perstorp’s costs for REACH in 2010 were around SEK 23 m.

Carbon Footprint (CFP)
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides an overview of the complete environmental impact of a product during its life cycle, from extraction of raw materials via the production processes, transport and use to waste management. A Carbon Footprint (CFP) is based on an LCA, but only those emissions that affect the climate are measured. Emissions are weighted according to their strength as greenhouse gases, and then concerted to CO2 equivalents. The three principal gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

We are noting that our customers are increasingly interested in the CFP of our products, and we view the development and use of CFP as very useful when describing environmental impact externally, as well as in our internal training and improvements. For example, we can identify where environmental impact is largest in the production chain, focus our efforts accordingly and create an efficient environmental management system. There is also a possibility to use the results of CFP in product development and marketing, for example.

Together with the Technical Research Institute of Sweden, SP, and in dialogue with a number of our customers, we started to establish Carbon Footprints for some of our major products in 2010. The methods we are using follow the standards applicable for LCAs (ISO 14040 and ISO 14044), and the standard used for a product’s CFP (ISO 14067).

The full life cycle of a product is detailed, from cradle to grave, including emissions relating to raw material production, energy, production, use, destruction and all transport. The figures for our products apply from when they leave the factory gates and they can be used for an Environmental Product Declaration, EPD.

Calculations for the basic polyols – Penta, TMP and Neo – have been completed, as well as for certain products – Di-Penta, Di-TMP, sodium and potassium formate, formaldehyde, Polyol PX and propionic acid.

We will continue work on CFP calculations on a wider scale in 2011.

Training in the environment, health & safety 
In 2010, the total amount of training was 22,687 (30,550) hours for 3,415 participants (3,800).